DEADLY AFFAIR

rang at

e number flash across the screen. Private. Unfamiliar. He hesitated, his gut clenching-

nswe

tor R

was calm

our wife, Eleanor Roth, was involved in a car accident off I

ence

tic. Then came the silence-the kind that presses against your ea

sending the chair s

e demanded. "You'

it the divider. Paramedics pro

orts and next of kin procedures, but Lawrence

like

ines brok

e Dies in Trag

ds Eleanor Roth'

he background, her laptop open but forgotten. The moment

ed, gripping the

tape. Flashing lights. A body bag. The same woman who was once on the cover of Vogue Pol

o

nna

erved. A politician's perfect wife. Something about her

she wa

recent charity initiatives. Something didn't add up. W

orter instin

Department of Transportation. "I need access to th

's an active

autopsy," she snapped.

e what I

t back, chewing th

nna

nor Roth wasn't the type to die in a random accident

ence

y midmorning. Cameras clicked. Reporters cal

o of Eleanor and himself from their first campaign trail. She was smiling in that way only he could draw out of

sil

ulian Cross stepped in,

y," he sa

"She wasn't supposed

staye

Lawrence said, his voice low,

sn't an accident

know my enemies, Julian. But

d away most of the debris, but a few wilted flowers marked the spo

-barely visible

ing off, as if another car had b

nna

asn't

se was here

pinned photos and quotes across her investiga

an C

the Roth empire's darkest corners somehow trace

dn't have

ng inside h

accident. It

may have died k